Death of the Flowers

The Death of the Flowers

The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread;
The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,
And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day.

Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood
In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood?
Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers
Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.
The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain,
Calls not, from out the gloomy earth, the lovely ones again.

The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,
And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;
But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,
Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,
And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen.

And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come,
To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home;
When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still,
And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill,
The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore,
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.

And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died,
The fair, meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side:
In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forest cast the leaf,
And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief:
Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours,
So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers.


-- W.C. Bryant

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Hi Folks,

Apologies for my extended absence, many thanks for those who made comments to existing posts while I was away and that I've just recently seen since my return to the internet (many thanks also to Sarah from Forest Grove Botanicals for the nifty award!)

I've had some personal issues which kept me from being online, one of which was recent surgery (gallbladder removal last month). While I was able to have the laproscopic form of the surgery my recovery is still somewhat slow but I wanted to make the trek up to the Witch House (my little library/office on the hill) to share this poem that has always been an especially poignant one to me at this time of year and to give a quick update about some web stuff.

My website at http://www.hedgewytchery.com is currently down. I will retain the domain name but have ceased hosting at GoDaddy at this time. GoDaddy has always been dependable and inexpensive in their services offered so it isn't because of anything they have done, I just need a break from hosting at this time. I may move some of the contents here so that folks can still access some of the material that has proven to be so popular such as the cartomancy essays but that will take some time on my part so please be patient. You can still search for older versions of the website at http://www.archive.org so if you are looking for something that you really need quickly you can find it that way. I think both Yahoo and Google keep cached pages as well that would be somewhat current.

I hope that everyone is doing well and preparing for the upcoming Hallowmas Tides. I am slowly preparing to have a few folks up here to Rocking Witch Farm for a celebratory camping adventure and am looking most forward to the activities we have planned. I'll try and post some pictures afterwards and give more information and explanation about our events.

Blessings of the Season Upon You All!

-Dawn